The Best Way To Communicate With Developers When Recruiting And How Not To Mess It Up

Posted on 12th June 2017

According to a 2015 Stack Overflow survey, the best way to communicate with developers when recruiting is by email. Out of 26,086 respondents, 65% of developers stated that email was a great communication method.

With over 6 out of 10 developers preferring to be communicated with by email, the way you craft your hiring emails to developers becomes critical.
This is especially pertinent when working in high growth startups with time pressures to scale engineering teams.
Sending generic, unpersonalised messages won’t do the trick. Instead, you need to put thought into your approach. This includes the small details, like personalising the subject line. It includes going into detail about the company you’re recruiting for, not just the role. It includes mentioning and showing an interest in work the developer has done, to show you’ve done your research.

Sell The Brand Story. And Be Honest About Where It Is On Its Journey.

Communicate to the developer the “Why” behind what the company is trying to achieve. How does it resonate with them? Do your research and figure out how the problem the company is solving may fit with the developer’s skills, values and interests.
Talk about the culture. Statements like “a modern, startup culture”, or, “I’m recruiting for a fantastic company” won’t cut it. As a whole, developers will want details. What is the culture like? What is the ratio of male to female engineers? Where on the growth journey is the company.

Be Honest About The Role

On the whole, developers love interesting work, so be honest about the role. Where is the company on their tech journey? What part will the developer play in it? What’s going well? What needs improving? What technologies are being used? How does this marry up to the skills and experiences the develop has had to date.

Be Honest About The Benefits

Table tennis and free beer are great and can go some way to help shape an environment. However, developers will want to know the tangible benefits. What is the pay? Is flexible working allowed? What is the maternity policy?

Conclusion

The best way to communicate with developers when recruiting is by email.

From a Stack Overflow sample of over 26,000 developers, 65% said email is the best way to be contacted about job opportunities.

With that in mind, it’s critical you craft your hiring emails to developers, as it’s the most likely way to develop a dialogue about a potential role.

To do so, take time to focus on the small details, including personalising the subject line.

Within the email, ensure you create a brand story around the company you are hiring for. Be honest about the stage of its journey.

Go into detail about the role. Do your research to show how the developers skills, experiences and projects may make her a good fit. Talk about the challenges and successes of the function to date.

Be honest about the benefits. Table tennis and beer are great. What’s better to know is the holiday days, working arrangements, gender diversity, and maternity and paternity policies.

We work with high growth gaming studios to ensure they hire the best staff for their companies and their environments. We work with you, on site, as part of your team. We’ve helped to build teams for Supercell, Klarna, Farmdrop and more. If you’d like help building your team, get in touch here .